The backstory here is something that we've covered in the past, but just to summarize events again: in the mid-1960s, the comic book field was seeing a bit of a resurgence. A fad for costumed super heroes had sprung up, exploding to massive life in the wake of the premiere of the live action BATMAN … Continue reading Brand Echh: Double-Dare Adventures #1
More photographs from years and decades past showcasing the writers, artists and editors of our favorite comic books. Mark Gruenwald in M.C. Hammer costume for Halloween, early 1990s John and Virginia Romita at a convention, circa 1986 Stan Lee plays the Atari Spider-Man video game, circa 1981 Steve Ditko, 1960s Stan Lee and costumed fans, … Continue reading Comics Creators in the Wild 8
As Marvel began to become more of a force within the industry at the height of the super hero fad of the 1960s, the firm began to get some formidable press. This well-remembered article ran in Esquire Magazine in the issue dated September 1st, 1966. It included original artwork created for this purpose by Jack … Continue reading ESQUIRE Magazine, September 1st, 1966
A post from my Marvel blog of time gone by, this one talking about the then-recent acquisition by the Library of Congress of the original art to AMAZING FANTASY #15. I did a deep dive on these pages here: https://tombrevoort.com/2019/03/03/lee-ditko-amazing-fantasy-15/ Hanging Around The Library May 14, 2008 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In … Continue reading Blah Blah Blog – Hanging Around the Library
I'm fairly certain that I came across these documents at Scott Edelman's blog. In any case, Scott was one of those who found these documents preserved in the back of a drawer in the Marvel offices and hung onto them. Around 1966, as Marvel was beginning to make its first faltering in-roads into other media, … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: THE CHARACTER WRITE-UPS OF STAN LEE
And we are back, with the last of our sequence looking at Marvel's archived stats from FANTASTIC FOUR #1 to see what they might tell us about how the book and the stories had been put together. Before we get into the fourth and final section of the issue, though, I want to share something … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: THE STATS OF FANTASTIC FOUR #1, Part 4
Here's another of the books that I got in my Windfall Comics purchase where I bought a long box of around 150 Silver Age Comics for $50.00 in 1988--making each book cost a mere 33 cents. FANTASTIC FOUR was a favorite series of mine, and I believe this particular issue, #29, was one that I … Continue reading WC: FANTASTIC FOUR #29
As the 1970s turned into the 1980s, powerhouse artist and creative genius Jack Kirby was becoming increasingly disillusioned by the way the history of the creation of the Marvel characters was being recounted for the public. Beginning particularly with the publication of ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS in 1974, Kirby found his role in events diminished, … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The Firsthand Account of Jack Kirby
In the mid-1960s, thanks to the way that copyright law was set up at the time, Captain America co-creator Joe Simon filed legal paperwork in an opportunity to win back the rights to the Star-Spangled Avenger and the work that he and Jack Kirby and a variety of other hands had performed in the first … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The 1966 Testimony of Jack Kirby
Feels like it's been quite a while since I put together one of these surveys of absurdity. So what say we take a look at five more Marvel villains from the past who tried their hardest, but who somehow failed that ineffable test towards being legitimately dangerous--and who instead came across as ridiculous, absurd, and … Continue reading 5BC: Five More Dopey Marvel Villains
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